Anthony Stanley Mazurek

Anthony Stanley Mazurek passed away at home on April 14, leaving behind a network of beloved friends and family who are now trying to piece together what life on this earth will look like without him. From the moment he signed up for life, Anthony was a soul bursting at the seams with spirit, a sense of adventure, and a connection to wonder.

Born April 6, 1952 in Jersey City, New Jersey, Anthony grew up the second of four children to Anthony (Sr.) and Mary (née Gevaza) Mazurek. His childhood on Wegman Parkway was filled with stickball, a Catholic school education that deeply informed his life, and the kind of classic mischievous fun that he and his group of neighborhood boys were always getting into.

Whenever he remembered the early years of his life, his eyes would sparkle. “I wouldn’t change it for the world,” he’d say.

The ocean was where Anthony felt heaven existed. Every summer, he would go “down the shore” to Lavallette Beach in Seaside Heights where he was surrounded by cousins and an endless horizon that spoke to his soul every time he laid eyes on it. The sound of the water brought him peace, as did the sound of his father’s music—big band-era tunes that were played masterfully on the clarinet and saxophone.

While working his way through college, Anthony simultaneously maintained a job with Trans World Airlines (TWA) in Newark Airport. It was a career that took him to Greece and Hawaii many times over at the height of The Jet Age. But best of all, it brought him to his wife Robin: the woman with whom he would travel the journey of life for more than 47 years of marriage.

For all the traveling he and Robin did together,
ask him about the wildest, most awe-inspiring trip of his life and Anthony would tell you it was fatherhood.

The happiest day of his life was the day he became a Dad. “Someone could have punched me in the face and I would have hugged them,” he always said of what it felt like to hold his eldest son Zachary for the first time. When he and Robin became parents to a set of triplets—Brooke, Joshua, and Paige—he embraced the three-for-one special they’d never planned on and created a home that was filled to the brim with love.

Anthony raised his children to know what it was to be loved unconditionally every day of their lives, and in them he nurtured an intrinsic sense of caring for the earth and for each other that reflected the core of who he was as a person. He worked tirelessly at Fedex as a sales executive for 27 years to support his children’s goals, their education, and to provide them with the stability they needed to pursue their dreams.

Though Anthony would have rolled his eyes at the suggestion that he was an artist, he had an artist’s soul. Art and music profoundly shaped the way he experienced the world around him. He wrote poetry and dabbled with painting and woodworking, but his greatest canvas by far was the garden.

For nearly four decades, Anthony maintained an organic vegetable garden using the teachings his Baba imparted to him as a boy in Jersey City. He loved working with the earth and often called it his “cathedral.” It was where he felt closest to God. Brown paper bags filled with tomatoes and cucumbers were one of the ways he expressed love to neighbors and extended family.

One of Anthony’s great gifts was his ability to see “the special” in places where others might not. After retiring in 2015, he began combing through second-hand stores and collecting works of art that people had discarded. From the basement of the home he shared with Robin for 25 years, he restored and resold many of these pieces, taking the time to spiral into learning about the artists who had rendered them. “Everything has value,” he told his kids.

In retirement, Anthony also took a seed of an idea that had been percolating in his mind for many years and launched “Always Be Weeding,” a line of t-shirts inspired by the life lessons and philosophy his time in the garden imparted to him. The shirts went on to sell all across the United States and overseas. They were so authentically . . . him.

Anthony was the person who would stop to help anyone in need. When he spoke to people, he made a point to look them in the eye and use their first name (even if he messed up that name four times over). If he saw an America’s Funniest Home Video that made him laugh, he’d watch it 10 times—show everyone and anyone who would watch it—and laugh just as hard every single time.

His joy was contagious. No one could bust a move like him on the dance floor. He was playful and stubborn and lived his life with levity, vivacity, humor, and determination. His gentle and poetic way was irreplaceable. His eyes were as blue as the ocean, and his spirit as maverick as the waves. He was as endearing and as soulful as they come.

Anthony leaves behind his beloved wife Robin; his children Zachary, Brooke, Joshua, and Paige; his daughters-in-law Tara Mazurek and Hajar El Yaaqoubi whom he was thrilled to welcome into the family; his sisters Joan, Diane, and dear baby sister Christine; cousins Gordon, Michael, Stephen, and Mark whom he called his brothers.

In lieu of flowers, Anthony would have appreciated donations made to St. Jude Children’s hospital in his name. His work with FedEx connected him to the hospital and to Memphis. He felt that every child deserved love and care.

Services at Sol Levinson's Chapel, 8900 Reisterstown Road Pikesville, MD 21208, on Sunday, April 19th, 2026, at 1pm. Interment Baltimore Hebrew Berrymans Lane Cemetery. Please omit flowers. Contributions in his memory may be sent to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.